Second Year, New Classmates
by Anime PJ
Summary: Yamato is a social recluse. He is shy, spends most of his time avoiding other people, and has a brother who is constantly putting him down. He isn't particularly looking forward to attending Yokai Academy, but maybe, just maybe, he'll change his mind when he comes to be friends with his seniors in the Newspaper Club. OC/Mizore. Slow updates - be patient.


**Hello there, Constant Readers, and welcome to my second story for** ** _Rosario + Vampire_** **! The idea for this belongs to the user** **ObeliskX** **, who PMd me a damn long time ago about writing this thing (sorry it took so long, buddy). I'm both enthusiastic and slightly nervous about writing this, as my other story for this series –** ** _Freshman at Yokai_** **– wasn't very well received when I first published it (understatement of the motherfucking century …) and I hope that I get a better reception this time around.**

 **Also, while we're on the subject of the reception, if you flame you'll be blocked (or your review will just be deleted if you're a guest). Negative reviews are fine as long as they're constructive and/or useful to me. Mindless abuse will not be tolerated. If you hate OC stories so much, stop fucking reading them.**

 **A brief overview of the idea: An OC enters Yokai Academy during the second season of the animé. This OC will enter the academy during Tsukune's second year; he will join the newspaper club, and boom-bam, we have ourselves a story!** **ObeliskX** **even put enough thought into this idea that he has the protagonist's personality all thought-out, and I find it quite flattering that he asked me of all people to do this. And while he has asked that this be set in the animé, he has given me permission to use a few things from the manga, too, so expect a few things that didn't happen in the animé to happen in this story.**

 **The OC will be paired with Mizore. To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced I can do this realistically seeing as she will have been in love with Tsukune for a while now, but** **ObeliskX** **said he liked the idea of the pairing, so I went with it. I kind of wanted to do an OC story that focused more on Mizore, anyhow. And, to be honest, I do like a challenge.**

 **Like my other story (which I have started editing), this will be from the first person POV of my OC, while occasionally cutting to Tsukune in the third person when I think it necessary for the story. Contrary to what some believe (*cough* flamers *cough*), I do like Tsukune very much as a character, and I think it'd be a shame to stick him in the back.**

 **And one last point. After I've posted this chapter, I'll be balancing my time between editing old chapters of my other stories, getting the stories that have been in my head for a while released at long last, and writing new chapters for my** ** _Persona_** **story, since, as I've said before, that's my main project. I'll resume posting new chapters for this and my other stories when I've finished releasing the ones that have been stuck in my head for a while. And even then, I'm only going to be working on one story alongside my** ** _Persona_** **story at a time, maybe two if I feel in the mood. I hope you all understand.**

 **Now, without further ado, let's begin.**

* * *

I Arrive at Crazy School

I sat on the bus, shaking with nerves.

There were no words that could adequately express how nervous I was feeling sitting on the bus to Yokai Academy. This was going to be my first year at the school, and I had been nervous before I'd even gotten on the _bus_. What were the teachers going to be like? What were the students going to be like? Would I make friends? Would people want to talk to me? A massive assortment of questions raced through my mind, and I found that I had to breath slowly and deeply in order to maintain any semblance of calmness.

My name is Yamato Hayashi. Staring out the window in an attempt to calm myself, I saw reflected my golden eyes that sparkled in the sun. My shoulder-length blonde hair hung down over my left eye, and was neatly trimmed at the back. My pale complexion made me appear almost sickly, though it was mostly due to a lack of outdoor activities. My face was slightly girlish, which had gotten me teased a lot in my childhood – it still did, as a matter of fact, though mostly by my brother. I was a scrawny kid, and the green uniform of Yokai Academy hung baggy on me – I'd had to cut the sleeves on the blazer to get them to fit properly. I had a pair of headphones hung around my neck; I only really listened to them when I wanted to be left alone.

 _Come on, Yamato, pull yourself together,_ I urged myself. It didn't work. No matter how hard I tried, I was always so … so _nervous_ when it came to entering a new environment. It didn't help that from what I could gather my brother had a less than favourable reputation around here, and I didn't want whatever he had done to deserve his bad rep to rub off on me … I mean, it _couldn't_ have been _that_ bad, right …?

"You new, kid?" asked the bus driver. He was a creepy guy whose cap shadowed his eyes. He had been smoking that same cigarette ever since I had gotten on the bus.

"Y-yeah, I am," I said nervously. I felt the familiar sensation of a swarm of butterflies going nuts in my stomach. There were a lot of situations I got nervous in, but talking to people was _definitely_ the worst one.

"Word of advice: Be careful," he said. He turned his head slightly, and I caught sight of his terrifying grin. "That school you're going too … it's not for the faint of heart."

 _That's me fucked, then …_ I thought, swallowing in nervousness. I managed to send a shaky nod of thanks to the bus driver, but couldn't physically bring myself to say anything else.

I tried not to think about his warning. It was a school for Monsters, of _course_ it was going to be a dangerous place, but I was trying my hardest not to think of the danger. My brother hadn't exactly ended his last year with a bang – well, actually he _did_ , but not the good kind – and despite the fact that I actively hated my brother for his extremist attitude towards humans and anyone he considers weak, he was still my _brother_ , and I couldn't imagine what he had done to deserve that beating was anything too extreme. I could only hope any enemies he had made didn't decide to pick me as a new target …

I was brought out of my paranoid musings when the bus pulled to a stop. We were in a suburban street, blatantly still in the human world, which meant we were probably picking someone up.

That was proven to be correct when the doors of the bus opened and in stepped another boy in the green Yokai Academy uniform. He looked older than me by about a year or so, which meant he was likely in the year above me. He had dark brown hair – and I mean _really_ dark brown; pretty close to black. His eyes were brown, too, but it was much easier to tell because of their much lighter shade. He had a slight tan, but otherwise his skin was rather fair. He was breathing heavily, which told me he must have ran to get to the bus on time.

He greeted the driver, then turned to take a seat on the bus. Our eyes met briefly, and I immediately became very interested in my feet. I was even more nervous now that someone else was on the bus with me. I wasn't prepared for this; I hadn't expected to have to interact with another student yet. _Please don't sit by me,_ I found myself pleading inside my head. _I'll end up making it awkward, I know it. I'm too nervous. I'm not ready for this yet …_

All those thoughts came to an abrupt halt when the other boy sat in the seat beside me.

"Hi," he said. The smile on his face made me slightly less nervous. "You must be new this year. I'm Tsukune Aono. What's your name?"

I hesitated for a moment. I was never good at talking to people, I just got so nervous and jittery all the time. "Y-Yamato Hayashi," I managed to stutter out. Now that he was here, I decided to at least _try_ my hand at conversation. "H-how did you know I'm new?"

"You look real nervous," he said. He gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Try not to worry about it. The school may seem scary at first, but you'll get used to it."

"… Thanks," I said. I gave him a small smile. "I'll take your word for it."

This actually wasn't going too badly so far. If I could keep this up, then I might actually have something that vaguely resembles a social life by the end of the year. And this Tsukune guy was nice. Hopefully there would be other students like that when we got to the school …

"Hey, kid," said the bus driver.

Both Tsukune and I looked at him, unsure of which of us he was talking to.

"It's been a year now," said the bus driver. I realised he must have been talking to Tsukune. "Have you gotten used to it yet?"

"Yeah, I guess so," said Tsukune. He still had that smile on his face, which told me that he had more than gotten used to it, and probably actually liked it there.

"Yokai Academy is a school _of_ Monsters, _by_ Monsters, and _for_ Monsters," the bus driver went on. "If you can blend in there, you're no ordinary guy."

Now I was curious. What did he mean, "blend in"? I had obviously heard about the rules, that no one is allowed to be in their Monster form while at the school, but the way he was talking to Tsukune, it was almost like there was some special reason he had to "blend in" …

I spared a glance at Tsukune, and he caught my eye. He smiled at me, but I'd made enough of them to know that that smile was filled with nervousness. There was definitely _something_ going on here …

"You two had better watch your backs," said the bus driver.

"Why?" Tsukune and I asked at the same time, though I said it with more of a stutter.

"'Cause just when you think you've got it all figured out, that's usually when things go to hell," said the bus driver. He gave a creepy little chuckle and continued driving in silence.

After a few more moments, we entered into some kind of tunnel. It was pitch black when we went in, but pretty soon the walls began shining and shimmering with different colours, and it became apparent to me that we were crossing over the barrier between the human world and the Monster world. This was it, the final stretch. I was about to arrive at Yokai Academy for the first time.

The bus pulled to a stop and the doors opened.

"Here we are," said the bus driver. Once Tsukune and I were off the bus, he tipped his cap to us. "Welcome to Yokai Academy, kid," he said to me. "You two take care now." Then he closed the doors of the bus and drove off.

I looked around at where we had been dropped off, and what I saw unnerved me quite a bit. Before us was a forest of trees that were either dead or dying, and behind us there was nothing but an ocean that looked suspiciously like blood. The bus stop was also an unnerving sight – it was a stereotypical creepy scarecrow, built with a pair of sticks covered in raggedy, torn clothes, and with a pumpkin head that had a rather scary face. There was a sign nailed to its front that read: _BUS STOP_. The real kicker was off in the distance, though. The school itself looked like something out of one of those haunted house movies the humans were so fond of. The place looked genuinely terrifying.

"… _This place is so fucking creepy …_ " I muttered under my breath, trying not to look as freaked out as I felt.

"I know it _looks_ scary," said Tsukune. Apparently my efforts to go unheard were in vain. "But trust me, it's much more pleasant on the inside. You'll get used to it in no time."

"… I hope you're right," I said, then the two of us started walking together. As we walked through the forest toward the school, I became acutely aware of the crows that were in the trees, eyeing us up like we were to be their next meal. This was why my brother always said I was more like a human than a Monster; I just got scared too damn easily … "What are the teachers like?" I asked Tsukune in an attempt to distract myself. "Are they all strict? I … I kinda have a problem about shouting …" It was embarrassing to admit, and my face was heating up, but I felt the need to ask.

"A couple of them have a more … _extreme_ way of teaching, you could say …" He sounded a lot like he was talking from experience. "But don't worry! You should be fine, so long as you pay attention."

"Good to know," I said.

We came upon a clearing where the sun was shining through the trees in beams of varying thickness. While the presence of the light helped to alleviate the terror of the place, the fact that there were gravestones all around the area didn't help matters at all. Strangely, though, Tsukune was looking around the area in a nostalgic sort of way, like that place had some sort of special meaning to him.

That's when the sound of a bike coming from behind us caught our attention.

My sense of nervousness picked up again. It looked like I'd be meeting another student on the way to school …

"That's a bike …" said Tsukune. A wide smile broke out on his face for reasons unknown to me. "All right! Maybe it's Moka!" He turned around to see, and …

… the bike and its rider collided with him head-on.

"Ouch …" I said, wincing in sympathy, as I saw the tangled mess they had fallen into on the ground.

"Here, let me give you a hand …" Tsukune said, groaning, as he reached out to the person he was on the floor with. Only …

"Um … Tsukune," I said, getting his attention. "That's, er … that's not her … well, _anywhere_ you should be grabbing …" My face was red as I saw Tsukune, in his attempt to help up the girl he was on the ground with, accidentally grab her right breast.

The girl released an involuntary moan. Not loud, but still very much there. She was an attractive girl, to say the least. She had fair skin, emerald-like green eyes, and flaming orange-red hair that was tied in two bushy ponytails with big red bows. She wore the school uniform, but it was different to the others in that it was red. She wore a white dress shirt like all the students, but instead of the blazer the other students were supposed to wear, she wore a red sailor girl uniform, with buttons and a tie that was split into two. Her skirt was chequered and yellow-green. She wore long red-brown stockings on her legs with white strips at the top, and brown prom heels with bows. There was a small bracelet on her left arm.

Tsukune looked and realised what he was doing. "I'm sorry!" he said with a gasp. There was a moment when the two of them looked at each other, almost mesmerised, and I thought I was going to have to get their attention.

That didn't turn out to be the case …

"Hey!" the girl snapped at Tsukune. "Stop groping me, you creep!"

Tsukune finally took his hand off her breast and made to sit up. "I'm so sorry!" he said. "I didn't mean to! I was just—"

Unfortunately, Tsukune didn't get the chance to explain himself before the girl brought up one of her legs and kicked him off. He went flying and landed on the floor rather painfully. I moved over to help him up.

"You felt me up!" the girl accused him.

"By accident …" Tsukune groaned as I helped him get up. "Thanks, Yamato."

"Wait …" the girl said quietly. She stood up and came closer, standing uncomfortably close to Tsukune. I had to take a step back to avoid feeling incredibly awkward about it. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you smell really good!" And the next thing I knew, she was _licking Tsukune's face_!

Tsukune seemed about as shocked by this as I was, and his face started going red …

… then the girl kicked him away again. "You were gonna grope me again!" she yelled at him.

"… _Is this girl bipolar or something …_?" I muttered to myself. Then I took a scared step backward when the girl got up close to me, glaring with such intense ferocity I was afraid I would lose control of my bladder functions.

" _What were you saying_?" she asked in a growl.

"… That I _really_ need to work on my whispering skills …?"

One unnaturally powerful kick to the chest later, I was sprawled out on the floor next to Tsukune, groaning in pain.

"You two can drop dead!" the girl said as she strolled off, her briefcase slung over her shoulder.

"… What the fuck just happened?" I asked. I stood up and brushed myself off, then I offered Tsukune a hand getting up again.

"I have no idea." Tsukune took my hand and I helped him up. "Thanks," he said. "We'd better get going. Your commencement ceremony starts soon, and I'd hate for you to not know which class you're in."

"I wouldn't complain," I said. "The inevitable moment where I embarrass myself in the middle of the classroom can be put off a little longer."

"Don't think like that, you'll be fine." Tsukune offered me a kind smile. "C'mon, we should go."

The two of us continued our walk toward the school.

And when we got to the school, I wasn't entirely sure what the ever-loving fuck I was looking at.

The fact that it was a really large crowd of girls was enough to make me nervous. What they were _doing_ had me both confused and blushing up a storm. The entire congregation was surrounding two other girls, speaking to them in what I assumed was admiration, and … well, groping the hell out of them. There were guys there, too, but like Tsukune and I they were watching in varying levels of confusion and embarrassment.

" _Hey_!" Tsukune yelled. He looked like he had reached some sort of breaking point. " _What the hell are you doing_!? _You're all giiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrllllllllllls_!"

One of the girls heard his shout and looked in our direction, her eyes instantly honing in on Tsukune. She was a short girl – probably not even in her teens, from the look of her – who wore a large, stereotypical Witch's hat and a black cape. She wore a pink top and corset, and her skirt was the same kind that all the female students wore. She also wore yellow over-the-knee socks and brown shoes. Her hair was short and black, and her eyes were a bright purple.

This small girl managed to pull away from the girls who were grabbing onto her, a large smile on her happy face. "Hey!" she exclaimed in apparent joy. "Nothing can keep me from you, Tsukune!"

… Then the second girl ran straight into her back, her _massive_ breasts colliding with the younger girl's head and knocking her to the ground. I blushed when I saw her jiggling chest as she ran in our direction – toward Tsukune specifically – but shook my head and tried to get that under control. Staring at a girl's chest is just rude.

The girl in question was probably Tsukune's age since she seemed to know him. She could be older, but I didn't think that likely. She had ocean blue hair that was tied back with a purple headband that had two stars on the side. Her eyes were purple, like the other girl's, but a much darker shade, and her eyelashes were thick. She wore a plain, long-sleeve shirt with a large red bowtie. Over the top of that, she wore a pale yellow vest, and a light brown chequered skirt with white leg warmers and black dress shoes. Her skin was fair, and as I said, her chest was rather … sizeable, to say the least.

"Yes! Yahoo! Tsukune!" the blue-haired girl exclaimed in joy as she ran toward Tsukune. "Hey, you didn't forget about me, did you!?" She jumped at him when she got close enough, her arms and legs spread out, and she landed on him with her legs on his shoulders and her arms wrapped around his head. I would have questioned the physics of how he was still standing, but I was slightly distracted by the fact that her huge bust was pressing against Tsukune's face.

"Oh, I've missed you _so_ bad!" the girl said. "You're gonna tell me you're glad to see me again, too, right?"

Tsukune made a bunch of muffled noises that I assumed was supposed to be speech, but none of them escaped due to the fact that his face was being pressed into a pair of rather large "assets" at the moment.

 _I've been at this school for about ten minutes, and I'm already questioning my own sanity …_ I thought to myself as I watched on, wide-eyed and with a huge blush on my face, that immense feeling of awkwardness settling in my stomach again. _Isn't this something they should_ really _be doing in private? Or is this a common occurrence around here?_ I didn't know; I was too focused on trying not to look at the display. As someone who has little to no social life at home, seeing displays of affection this intimate and forward in public was … a _new_ experience, to say the least. _Do_ all _couples behave like this in public …?_

"Chill out," said a cold, emotionless voice from nearby. It was a girl's.

The girl who had been pressing her breasts into Tsukune's head suddenly got off of him and stood still, looking dazed and confused. That's when I noticed a kunai made of what appeared to be ice lodged in her forehead.

"It'll be a cold day in hell before I let you sink your claws into my Tsukune, you big-boobed bimbo," said the voice again. I turned toward the source and saw the girl who had spoken standing behind a tree.

She was pretty, that's the first thing that came to my mind. She had shoulder-length, light purple hair. Her eyes were an ice-like blue, and her pupils were a darker shade of blue rather than the black that most humans and Monsters exhibited. The only thing about her outfit that fit in with the school uniform was the brown chequered skirt. She wore a white sweatshirt with long, dark blue sleeves, with a black singlet underneath and a yellow pendant. On her legs she wore long, striped, dark and light purple stockings, and a belt attached to her left leg. She wore a pair of white shoes on her feet. One other thing worthy of note was the lollipop she had in her mouth. She had three of the ice kunai in her hand, and she was levelling a glare at the blue-haired girl.

"Oh yeah, you frozen freak?" asked the blue-haired girl, glaring at the one who had thrown the kunai at her. The blue-haired girl's nails suddenly grew into long, purple claws, and a pair of large purple wings sprouted from her back. "He's _my_ Tsukune, and I'm gonna shred you into ice-cubes if you come near him!"

"Bring it on, then, Kurumu," said the purple-haired girl. She stepped out from behind the tree and raised her hands, which then turned into massive spikes of ice that protruded from her arms. Now that she was closer I could feel that she was giving off a natural coolness into the air, and it felt strangely pleasant to be around. "There's only one woman for Tsukune, and that's me, his little popsicle."

"First day of school, and there's already a fight between the Succubus and the Snow Woman!" said the Witch girl.

"Does this happen often?" I asked, turning to Tsukune.

"More than I'd like to admit," he said to me.

"… Shit, that's just _fantastic_ …" I think the sarcasm in that statement speaks for itself.

"Stop it!" yelled yet _another_ girl, who was just arriving on the scene. "Please, this is no way to kick off a new school year!"

She, like the other girls, was incredibly beautiful. Her skin was pale, fair, and smooth. Her flowing, waist-length hair was bubblegum pink. Her wide eyes were emerald green and sparkled in the light of the sun. She was the only one of the girls I'd seen up close so far who was wearing the actual girls' uniform for the school – a white dress-shirt, green blazer, and a brown chequered skirt that was so short it didn't even come _close_ to being knee-length. She also wore a silver cross around her neck with a red bead in the middle that somewhat resembled the slit eyes of a cat or reptile.

"Moka!" said Tsukune, his face lighting up in joy.

"Tsukune!" Moka said, too.

It took me all of five seconds to realise that these two had an abnormal amount of affection for one another. The look of love on Tsukune's face made me honestly wonder how the other girls even hoped to compete.

The other two stopped fighting when they realised Tsukune wasn't even paying attention. They looked a little confused.

"I really missed you, Moka …" Tsukune said quietly. He was looking at Moka like she was the only girl in the world.

"I missed you, too, Tsukune …" Moka said, just as quietly. She had much the same look on her face as Tsukune had on his. She suddenly gasped out and fell forward, directly into Tsukune's waiting arms.

"Moka!" Tsukune said in worry.

"It's been so long since I …" Moka was smiling and had a small blush on her face.

"Wait a minute," said Tsukune. He looked like he knew _exactly_ what was going on. "Don't tell me …"

"I can't help what I am," said Moka, then she rather forcefully lunged at Tsukune. "And what that is is a Vampire!"

And then she sunk her fangs into Tsukune's neck.

I was baffled and confused, but by no means worried. I had heard that having a Vampire drink from you was a strange experience, but by no means dangerous unless they drained every last drop out of you. Tsukune looked like he was relatively used to this, so I saw no real need to worry about him. That being said, the noises she made just before she started sucking his blood were more … _provocative_ than I was expecting. I was once again feeling extraordinarily awkward about being around these people at the moment. It was enough to make me completely ignore that they were breaking school rules right in front of all the new students.

"Guess I'm lucky the other girl didn't do this," said Tsukune. I'm not sure he realised he was talking out loud.

"I honestly don't know whether that would have been more or less awkward to watch than this …" I said. I hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Moka separated herself from Tsukune's neck. "What do you mean, _other girl_?" she asked. Then she passed a glance at me, like she was just realising I was here. "And who's this?"

Any answers she might have gotten were cut off when a crowd of the girls in my year charged toward her and started to crowd her, speaking their admiration for her in rather loud, high-pitched voices. It was actually scary to watch, if I'm being honest. They crowded her, started grabbing her in places I am not going to name, and then ran off with her. I can only assume she was making some desperate attempt to escape from them, but the fangirls were relentless in their pursuit.

"What the hell is _with_ those freshmen?" asked the blue-haired girl – I think the purple-haired girl had called her "Kurumu." "One minute they're pawing all over me, and then they're going gaga over Moka!"

"Um, hey … are you all right?" the witch girl asked, looking down at the floor.

It was only then that I noticed that Tsukune hadn't gotten out of the way when the fangirls arrived. He was on the floor, groaning in pain, footprints all over his body.

"My God, barely here for ten minutes, and I'm already terrified …" I said to myself. I felt someone's gaze on me, so I turned my head in their direction. It was Kurumu, and she was fixing me with a scrutinising look. I shuffled on my feet self-consciously, only just managing to bring myself to speak. "W-what …?" I asked.

"You look suspiciously familiar," she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

"I, er … I don't see _how_ ," I managed to say, trying to ignore the exploding feelings of nervousness in my stomach. "I haven't got a clue who you are."

She kept her eyes narrowed at me for a few more moments, then shrugged and brought her attention back to Tsukune, who was now standing up, albeit a little wobbly on his feet.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he reassured everyone as they fussed about his well-being. He looked at me. "If I'm remembering right from last year, the commencement ceremony for the freshmen should be starting in about five minutes."

"Ah … okay …" I said, gulping nervously. My nervousness was about to reach a pique, I just knew it. I breathed slowly and heavily in an attempt to calm myself down, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked to see Tsukune smiling kindly at me.

"Trust me, you'll be _fine_ ," he said.

"I hope so …" I said. I nodded at him, then started walking away.

I had only known Tsukune for about half an hour, but I could already say that I liked him. Those girls seemed nice enough, too, though I could see that their attempts to fight over Tsukune were pointless. One glance was all it took me to know that Tsukune was in love with Moka. Even then, though, it looked like they were a rather tight-knit group of friends.

 _I hope I can make friends like that …_

* * *

After the commencement ceremony, during which we were told what classes we were going to be in, we were all sent to said classes. The first class was really only to explain the functions of the school to us, and to get us introduced to our teachers. The only thing worthy of note during that whole event is that I was in the same class as that psychotic orange-haired girl Tsukune and I had come across on the way to school. The glare she levelled my way the second she saw me was terrifying, but other than that it was a lot less scary than I had expected it to be.

We had also been allowed to go and look at the dorms we'd be staying in, and while the building itself looked like the setting for a teen slasher movie, it was large and roomy, and the inside looked a lot more welcoming than the outside. I went to my new dorm room, too, and that was a rather comfortable place. All things considered, it looked like the living situation was at least going to be nice.

That brings me to the next part of my first day: choosing a club.

The teacher said that last year they had given the students a little while to settle in before getting people to join clubs, but this year they wanted us to get mingling with fellow students as quickly as possible. So that's why I was outside, wandering the school grounds as all the clubs made their displays. They all looked … _interesting_ , but I just couldn't see myself joining most of them.

The Swim Club would have been ideal. I loved swimming, but there were far too many attractive girls in the club. If I joined them, I'd have spent most of the time being too flustered to so much as set _foot_ in the pool.

The Photography Club was another good pick, since I've always had a certain fondness for taking photographs. There was a startling amount of beauty involved in capturing a moment on film, like you were trying to preserve it forever. That being said, the people who ran the Photography Club made me nervous; they just came across as _way_ too creepy for me to be comfortable around them.

Baseball Club? No. I've never been one for sports.

Chemistry Club? Hell no; some of the things they said they made sounded pretty illegal. I had no interest in re-enacting _Breaking Bad_.

I sighed and continued walking through the area, lost in my own solitude. This just wasn't working. I wanted to join a social group – no matter how nervous I felt or how shy I was, even I recognised that my time at this school would be better if I had some friends – but none of these seemed quite right. They were either all activities I had no interest in, people I didn't think I'd get along with, or people who looked nice enough but I was too flustered to approach.

I sighed again. _You're a mess, Yamato,_ I thought to myself. _When are you gonna grow a pair, huh? You're gonna be here all year; if you don't make some friends, they're gonna mark you as the weird, lonely kid._

That's when I noticed a small group of guys walking away from one of the stalls. They looked pretty enthusiastic about it. Curious, I walked over in that general direction and pretty quickly saw what those guys had been smiling at. It was Kurumu and that little Witch girl I never got the name of, and they were wearing … _Oh, dear God._ My blood rushed up to the general area of my face, and I'm pretty sure I went redder than the Devil himself. They were wearing _very_ revealing maid uniforms. I could certainly see how that worked as a good business strategy for attracting guys to the club, but for the love of God, was dressing like that even _allowed_ here!?

I kept on walking in that general direction, but I was now planning on just walking past and going about my day. If I had to hold a conversation with those two dressed like that, I honestly don't think I could handle it—

"Hey, aren't you that guy Tsukune was with this morning?"

I immediately cursed my luck. The Witch girl had spoken to me just as I was walking past their stall. Sighing, I put on as good a smile as I could and turned toward them. I began blushing immediately, but managed to keep my eyes on their faces rather than … anywhere else.

"Y-yes," I said. I tried not to stutter out of nervousness, but I failed spectacularly. "I … I'm Yamato. I know your name is Kurumu," I nodded at the blue-haired girl in question, "I caught it earlier when you were fighting that Snow Woman. But I don't know who you are," I added to the Witch girl.

"I'm Yukari," she said. "So, how goes the search for a club to join?"

"Not well, to be honest," I said. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. "I … I'm looking, I really am, but nothing seems to … to _fit_. Know what I mean?"

"Well, in that case, why don't you take one of our papers?" Kurumu asked, picking one up from the table and handing it to me. "We were hoping to recruit a few freshmen today. Why don't you take a look and see if you wanna join us?" She narrowed her eyes slightly at me. "Are you sure we've never met? You do look _really_ familiar."

"Now that she mentions it, you kinda do," said Yukari, also narrowing her eyes. There was nothing threatening about their looks; I think they were just curious.

"Well … um …" I had to work up some nerve to bring this up. If his reputation was bad, this could very well end badly for me, but if that was going to happen, I wanted it to happen early on rather than have to suffer through the suspense and build-up. "You … you might've met my brother. He only left the school last year."

"Well, who's your brother?" asked Kurumu.

I never got the chance to answer. As it turned out, I hadn't seen the last of that psychotic redhead.

"What's with this stupid paper?" asked the familiar voice of the dreaded psychopath. She was standing nearby, holding up a paper she had clearly just snatched out of some guy's hands. She was glaring at it in much the same way she had glared at Tsukune and I earlier. "Who wrote it, kindergärtners? Talk about lame." She crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it behind her like it was garbage.

"I'll show you lame, you freshman brat!" said Kurumu. "Get back here!"

Her negative feelings soon vanished when a large number of people approached asking for papers. Kurumu and Yukari smiled as they handed them out, whereas I just stood there, awkwardly holding the one I had been given. There were too many people around here now, and I was starting to feel self-conscious. So I did the only thing I could think to do under such circumstances.

I quietly slipped away.

* * *

It was after school.

I was in the boys' dorm, preparing to go up to my room and sleep for the night. Not much had happened on that first day, it basically being our introduction to the school and all. I had read through the paper that Kurumu and Yukari had given me, and I've got to say, I didn't have a clue what that orange-haired nutcase was talking about. It was really well written, and the articles were really interesting. The photography was a little off, but I could forgive that. To be honest, I was actually considering joining these guys.

I walked up the stairs and toward my room, and just outside the room across the hall from mine, I saw Tsukune about to open the door. That was a pleasant surprise.

He took a glance at me, and a smile appeared on his face, though he looked slightly tense about something. I smiled back at him.

"Hey, Yamato," he said when I got to him. "How was your first day?"

"Surprisingly, not a complete disaster," I said. I felt strangely more relaxed than usual. "Actually, it's the opposite. Everything's going pretty good so far."

His smile widened. "See? I told you," he said. His eyes drifted to the newspaper I still had tucked under my arm. "You've been reading our paper?"

"Yeah," I said. "I ran into Kurumu and Yukari when I was out browsing the clubs earlier. They seemed nice. I like the paper, by the way, but …" I hesitated, unsure of whether or not I should say this.

"But …?" Tsukune asked. He didn't look offended, just curious.

"The, uh … the photographs look a little unprofessional." I rubbed the back of my neck as my face heated up again. I didn't like the idea that I might be insulting him.

"Oh, that," he said, nodding. "Yeah, our club president is supposed to take the photos, but he's normally taking pictures of … _other things_." He shuddered a little, and I suddenly got the picture.

"Oh …" I said. "So … he's one of _those_ types, is he?"

"Mm-hmm." Tsukune nodded.

"I'm pretty good with a camera," I suddenly blurted out. Then I went red in the face again. "I, er … I keep a scrapbook of photos I take. It's sort of a little hobby of mine, kinda stupid, really …"

"There's nothing stupid about that," said Tsukune. "Everybody needs a hobby."

"… I guess," I said, my red face dying down a little. I cleared my throat in an attempt to alleviate my feelings of awkwardness. "Anyway, what I was getting at was … Could I join you guys?" I asked. I suddenly became very interested in my own feet. "It's just, you guys seem nice, and the photography club isn't really for me, so I just wondered if I could be your paper's photographer or something …"

"Sure." My head snapped up. I hadn't expected him to agree so quickly, if at all. "Why don't you come with me tomorrow? I'm sure you'd be a great addition to the Newspaper Club."

"…" I was genuinely at a loss for words. Had he just … _agreed_ to let me join? "… Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much. I …"

He patted me on the shoulder, giving me that friendly smile of his. "It's fine, Yamato," he said. He took his hand off my shoulder. "I'll see you in the morning." He turned to go into his room.

I did the same.

"Hey, you're just across the hall from me," he said. "How about that?"

"Yeah, it's quite the coincidence," I agreed. I opened my door and turned to face him. "Goodnight."

"'Night," he said, then we both went into our rooms.

As I laid in bed that night, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. It was only my first day, and it seemed that I had already made a friend in Tsukune Aono. If the first day was this good, what was the rest of the school year going to be like?

And in a moment where I was completely unlike my usual self, I thought: _I can hardly wait!_

* * *

 **So, I know I didn't get through the entirety of the first episode, but I wanted this first chapter to cover Yamato's first day at Yokai Academy and nothing else. The rest of the episode, plus the entirety of episode 2, will be covered next chapter.**

 **What do you guys think? I think I've done a better job than I thought I was going to do, at the very least. How do you guys feel about Yamato as a character? Is he likeable? I hope so, I find that I'm rather enjoying writing this guy. If you guys could leave me your thoughts in the review section, that would be grand, thank you very much.**

 **Now, like I said earlier, I'm going to be editing my stories and releasing all the ones in the "Coming Soon …" section of my profile page. When those are all released, I will continue writing new chapters for my stories. I will be focusing mainly on my** ** _Persona_** **story, and maybe one or two others. There will be a poll on my profile page regarding which story(ies) you want me to focus on alongside my** ** _Persona_** **story. I'd appreciate it if you took the time to vote.**

 **Thank you all, Constant Readers, and have a lovely day!**


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